Water Managers Defer `glades Cleanup Plans

June 15, 1990|By ROBERT McCLURE, Staff Writer

A laundry list of proposals for how to finance the cleanup of South Florida`s endangered Everglades -- including one saddling Florida Power & Light Co. ratepayers with up to 31 percent of the tab -- on Thursday was laid aside for a month.

Members of the board that governs the South Florida Water Management District instructed staff members to look into ways to force sugar growers to pay part of the cost.

But they delayed until next month a decision on how much the growers should pay and how much the general citizenry should be responsible for.

Government scientists say water carrying pollutants off the sugar fields and nearby vegetable farms is ruining the Everglades.

The farming companies say the public should bear much of the cleanup cost because a publicly financed drainage project disrupted the natural water flows in the first place.

Members of the water board told staff workers to figure out how to split the costs.

``I think you have to have a logical approach,`` board Chairman James Garner said.

Until this week, the district plan envisioned sugar farmers paying about three-fifths of the $89.5 million the cleanup is to cost in the first five years.

But on Wednesday, staff members of the water district proposed shifting a major part of the cost from the sugar growers to the public. The change would extract up to $28 million, or 31 percent, from FPL in exchange for permission to ruin a swath of Everglades with a massive power line.